Living aboard our yacht Fram and sailing the world was both a nightmare and paradise but it was never mundane.
Have you ever thought about getting away from it all, living the good life and being totally free to do what you want, when you want? Well, leaving my family, my home and my job allowed me to do just that.
How could I have known that our first trial sail on an icy November afternoon would lead to nine years living aboard a small wooden sailing boat? Or that I would survive a 55 knot mid-Atlantic storm, 36 hour bouts of sea-sickness and hour after tedious hour at the helm gazing at horizons of empty sea.
My new life left me miles from my home and family, encountering a crack cocaine addict, an east end of London minder and a circus snake act. At times I wept from exhaustion and cold, at others marvelled at a magnificent tropical sunset, or the enormity of an ocean. Living aboard Fram and sailing the world might have been testing, frightening and exhilarating – but it was never mundane.